Now Available: Pulp Adventures #46 - Audrey Parente, ed.

PULP ADVENTURES #46 is out, and it’s another fine issue of this book/magazine from Bold Venture Press. More than half of this issue is devoted to the classic movie KING KONG, with a lengthy, in-depth examination by Bart Pierce of a long-time mystery: who played the woman Kong plucked out of her hotel room in the mistaken belief she was Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and then callously threw her to her death when he realized she wasn’t? The answers—and there are indeed more than one—are surprising, and along the way there’s a lot of fascinating background information about the making of a movie that means a great deal to many of us.

Will Murray, one of my favorite authors in the business today, contributes a fine article detailing the writing of his two novels featuring King Kong that also feature another couple of guys you might have heard of: Tarzan and Doc Savage. Even though we’re from different parts of the country and our careers have developed in much different ways, I’ve always felt a certain kinship with Will Murray during the 40+ years we’ve known each other, so it came as no surprise in this article when he mentions knowing the lyrics to the theme song of the King Kong animated TV series from the Sixties. At one time, so did I, and although I can’t recall the whole thing right now, I can definitely still hear parts of that song playing in my head!

Micah Swanson Harris continues the King Kong theme by examining the possible influence of H. Rider Haggard’s fiction on Kong’s creator Merian C. Cooper. Haggard is one of those authors I really need to get around to reading more of, so I appreciated this article.

Over on the fiction side, this issue reprints H.P. Lovecraft’s “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family” (also published as “The White Ape”), which is a Lovecraft story I hadn’t read until now. (That’s not unusual since I really haven’t read that much of Lovecraft’s work.) As often happens with Lovecraft, I love the creepy concept of this one. There are other reprints by John Russell Fearn (a nifty little suspense tale, the first non-SF by Fearn that I’ve read), John Burke, and Shelley Smith, plus brand-new stories by Riley Hogan (a nice Weird Western tale), Dr. Richard A. Olson (one of his stories about private eye Nick Stihl, a series I haven’t tried until now, but based on this one, I need to), and an action-packed yarn by the always entertaining Teel James Glenn about a convenience store robbery that features some surprising sword-swinging. There are some assorted book reviews by me, as well.

All in all, this issue of PULP ADVENTURES is great fun with some fine articles and great artwook. You can find it on Amazon or on the publisher’s website. Highly recommended.